CAMDEN, N.J. — For the Philadelphia 76ers to be legitimate contenders and overcome some of the Eastern Conference’s elite in the 2022-23 season, they need everybody to step up and contribute.
That means PJ Tucker, Philadelphia’s big free agency signing, needs to be healthy and at his best. He has experienced significant success at the NBA level, and he is expected to bring toughness, accountability and depth to this team.
Tucker underwent an arthroscopic procedure on his left knee late in the offseason, which the team revealed on media day. Ahead of opening night on Tuesday, the veteran revealed his knee is not at 100% yet.
“It’s been pretty good,” Tucker said at practice on Sunday. “Just every week try to get better, get stronger. It’s not 100% yet, but it’s a working progression to get there, but it’s been good. The training staff has been helping me a lot.”
Even though the knee isn’t completely healed, Tucker insists it isn’t holding him back on the floor.
“Nah, it’s just the progression and just getting it as strong as possible,” he said. “It’s still better than it was last year. Having to play with that all year last year, just getting back to normal, it’s gonna take time, and I know that so let’s just keep working.”
Tucker will make his Sixers debut against the Boston Celtics who eliminated his Miami Heat in the 2022 Eastern Conference finals. The veteran out of Texas says he doesn’t have any revenge on his mind. He just wants to help Philadelphia win games.
“It’s a new season, man,” he explained. “New season, new team. Even if I was on Miami, it still wouldn’t be, like, a revenge type of thing. You want to progress every year, get better as a team, figure out how you can make somebody else better on my team and how we can progress together to be a playoff team to win. That’s it.”
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=69464]
[lawrence-related id=69526,69523,69520]